If you like something…

Author Notes: When I was growing up, one of my favorite dinners was seafood. My dad would stop at our favorite seafood shop on his way home from work and buy boiled shrimp, crabs and crawfish. We’d spread newspapers over the kitchen table, and my siblings and I had contests to see who could peel the most shrimp and make the biggest pile of shells. We each had our own style. My brother and sisters and I would blow through and eat as fast as we could peel. My mother would peel several shrimp at a time and set them aside on a dainty plate and make herself a shrimp cocktail. My dad would challenge us to suck the crawfish and shrimp heads (which we pretended to think was disgusting, but was actually really good), and taught us how to tell male from female crabs (and if you got a female and were lucky, you’d get the roe as well). Cocktail sauce was always home-made, and always had lots of horseradish. Here’s my version.
(Proportions are to taste—feel free to play with it.)
—drbabs

Makes about a cup

3/4 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons prepared horseradish (I use Gold’s extra hot)

zest and juice of one lemon

5-10 drops Tabasco (add a few drops at a time till it’s as hot as you like)

Oh drb, don't know how I missed this before... just brought home some shrimp and realized I needed cocktail sauce for it. This is great. Thank you so much! BTW, the photos are super and you are adorable in your checked dress and face-framing waves!

If nothing, my fair lady, your stories are worth more than your recipes. Giving a part of yourself, dispersing a spirit or sorts from a family member, can be more a part of a recipe than the actual components. I do believe that when you make a recipe for friends or family you are including the spirit of the person who has passed that recipe on to you. that is why NO ONE can make it exaclty the way you do....tell me I am wrong and I will go silently away.......................

Some recipes are just like that, aren't they? Food connects us to primal memories and happy times--that's why it's so compelling. Thank you for noticing. Being able to share our stories is what makes this such a great community.

That's almost a dead ringer for my homemade cocktail sauce -- I don't use the smoked paprika, and instead of red pepper flakes, I just hit it with more hot sauce if it needs it. Proportions may be a little different -- who measures? -- but essentially the same sauce. Isn't it wonderful?